No one except Wynn himself might have imagined it, but in the past two years, the Las Vegas resort mogul has become one of the world's most successful art dealers/warehousers. Looking at the fruit of one large purchase Wynn made in March 1998 (just one of many acquisitions he or his company has made), he appears to be looking at a potential 40 percent to 50 percent appreciation on an investment of $50 million.

Beginning in November 1996, Mirage Resorts President and CEO Steve Wynn began collecting art for the opening of Bellagio, an upscale resort in Las Vegas. Yet even before Bellagio and the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art opened in October 1998, Wynn had become an art dealer, trading the works he acquired.

While Wynn picked out art for his company to purchase, he also bought for himself. Most notable is a group of seven contemporary paintings for $50 million from New York dealer William Acquavella on March 9, 1998. The math (admittedly, somewhat speculative), shows that Wynn has sold three of the paintings for around $37 million and two others worth about $4 million for undisclosed prices. And he still owns two that are worth over a total of $20 million, easily. Here's a list of the paintings in question and, where possible, information on what has become of them.

Wynn's profits aside, he continues to tinker with his art enterprise. No longer focusing on contemporary art, he has shifted the gallery's slant to Old Master, Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works. And in August, less than two years after the opening of the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Arts, he is opening an additional gallery of 1,700 square feet, and the company is publishing an update of the ever-changing catalogue of its collections. Bellagio charges $12 admission to the gallery and gets a tax break on sales of art.